Remote Control Session
by BinarySpark
Summary: Bill looks into some log files written by a recently apprehended criminal and begins doubting some decisions made higher up in the chain of command.


AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story is written in a highly experimental form (though that's obvious enough). It's designed to expand on the past of an original character I might use in future stories. Things are cryptic. That is intentional, so don't worry about it. Also, there's a little easter egg in the computer-y part of the story. Cookies to the nerd who finds it (hint: assembly).

Rated T for strong language, violence and death.

* * *

**-/ REMOTE CONTROL SESSION \-**

* * *

[19:29] LOGGER INITIATED  
[19:29] CORE: 0x91000042 [Space Dynamics High Performance CPU 5103]  
[19:29] Initializing display...ok  
[19:29] Connection successful: 0x01 0xA1 [Cornerian H-Tek Holographic Touch-enabled Display Monitor 43]  
[19:29] Initializing input driver..ok  
[19:29] Connection successful: 0x02 0x59 [Cornerian H-Tek Holographic Keyboard Input Device 24]  
[19:29] User operating system located - 0x001E9D93  
[19:29] Transferring processor control.

[19:29] Running Cornerian Military General-Purpose Terminal Operating System  
version 1 (build 6011, December, 9 ALW)  
[19:29] The time is: December 28th, 9 ALW - 19:29.  
[19:29] Welcome, guest.  
[19:30] Credential level: 0. Limited terminal access granted.  
] login bgray ************  
[19:30] Contacting authentication server...  
[19:30] Authentication successful.

[19:30] Welcome, Bill Gray.  
[19:30] Credential level: 5. All permissions granted.  
] connect  
[19:30] Usage: connect address mode  
] connect 9296-2324-1465-6829 remotecontrol  
[19:31] Specified terminal located outside of Cornerian space.  
[19:32] Connection established (3 nodes in comm link)  
[19:32] Additional verification required for remote control protocol. Please enter verification key.  
] 5819582  
[19:32] Key accepted by remote host. Remote control connection established.  
[19:32] WARNING: Remote host terminal is running unrecognized operating system.  
[19:32] WARNING: Invalid terminal signature. Possible unauthorized and/or unlicensed hardware detected. Remote control session may be unstable. Continue?  
] yes  
[19:32] Now transferring control to remote terminal...

[00:00] Running UNRECOGNIZED_OPERATING_SYSTEM [6801058914]  
[00:00] The time is: January 0th, 0 BLW - 00:00  
[00:00] Welcome, error  
[00:00] SYSTEM ERROR: INVALID USER: Attempt to index non-existant entity - ATTEMPTING RECOVERY  
Recovery attempt 1 failed.  
[00:00] Credential level: -127. All permissions granted.  
] setdir Documents  
] fils  
[00:00] Unknown command "fils".  
] files  
Documents  
|- asm (directory)  
|- mail (directory)  
|- if_youre_reading_this (text, 0 bytes)  
|- please_get_the_fuck_off (text, 0 bytes)  
|- my_terminal (text, 0 bytes)  
|- log (archive, 58104 bytes)  
2 folders, 4 files.  
] copy log rcon_controller  
[00:00] Copy operation failed: unknown destination "rcon_controller".  
[00:00] SYSTEM ERROR: INVALID USER: Attempt to index non-existant entity.  
Recovery attempt 2 failed. Authentication ID "INVALID" revoked. Shutdown in 10 seconds.  
] copy log rcon_conroller  
[00:00] Copy operation failed: unknown destination "rcon_controller".  
[00:00] Destination address override detected.  
[00:00] Specified terminal located outside of Cornerian space.  
[00:00] Connection established (3 nodes in comm link)  
[00:00] Copy operation successful. 58104 bytes copied.

[19:37] Remote-control connection to remote terminal LOST.  
[19:37] Reason: Terminal shut down.  
[19:37] Alert: Incoming file in transfer queue. File name: "log". File size: 58104 bytes.  
Accept?  
] yes  
[19:38] File saved to bgray\Documents\rcon\  
] setdir Documents\rcon  
] start log  
[19:38] Error: Input file is not executable.  
] read log  
[19:38] Error: Input file is not a text file. Read failed.  
] open log  
[19:39] Error: No program associated with file type.  
] unarchive log  
[19:45] Archive format: ARCHIVE_STANDARD_3  
[19:45] Failed to extract archive. File may be encrypted.  
] decode log  
] mode bruteforce  
] key 6812****43  
] save subfolder  
] start  
[19:48] Now decoding input file. 4 unknown digits in encryption key. (1048576 combinations)  
[19:48] Attempting to brute-force archive.  
[20:01] Brute-force attempt successful after 9593 combinations. Correct key: 6812959343  
[20:01] Files extracted to specified location.  
] files  
Documents\rcon\extracted  
|- 01 (? bytes)  
|- 02 (? bytes)  
|- 03 (? bytes)  
|- 04 (? bytes)  
4 files.  
] read all  
[20:02] 4 files matched query. Sort by?  
] ascending date  
*** 01 ***  
If you went through the trouble of getting so far as to be able to read this, you've earned it. If you're Furball's cronie, please fuck off, you have other things to do. If you're a Cornerian lapdog, please kill yourself. Now that that is out of the way, let us proceed.

No, you're a Cornerian lapdog, aren't you? I know who you are. Furball wouldn't try to open this archive. He knows not to mess with other people's stuff. Everyone else is too stupid to know how to. Orange wouldn't do it either. He'd pass it on to a Cornerian lapdog. To you. But you're different. I know that. So here you are, reading through this file, hoping to achieve some kind of ... what? What do you want to find? A confession? A reason? A motivation? A journal written by a pathetic idiot who describes how his life was put to ruin? I'll give you the latter. You don't need the others.

You can call me insane if you want to. Maybe I'm already dead. No, probably not. Cornerian lapdogs need their evidence before they can legally blow my brains out. As if it's not obvious enough already. But you know who I am, yes? You know what I have done, yes? What you are looking for is the why, yes? Let me give it to you, in the form of a story. I need to put a lot off of my mind, and this seems like the best way to do it. Who knows, maybe you'll learn a thing or two.  
*** End of file ***  
*** 02 ***  
Picture this, Bill.  
10 BLW. Your father is in an important government position. Your mother is in the exact same position, for the same company. What was it called? Oh, yes. Space Dynamics. Doesn't that sound familiar?  
Spring 11 BLW. Your parents get promoted. I'm not even sure what to. Nobody ever told me. I was 9 years old at the time. Maybe you guys should have killed me back then, come to think of it.  
Winter 11 BLW. Everybody died. Because SOMEBODY couldn't keep their paws off of the stuff they weren't supposed to read. At least, that's what everyone said. But I know better. You do too, don't you?  
There are few things I remember from my past. This is one of the memories that is crystal clear. This is the one that stained my soul, the one that burned my brain. We were driving to my uncle's place. Dad insisted on using a 'classic' car instead of those new hovering things. He was kinda afraid the thing might come crashing down randomly. Exactly 25.5 miles off the south end of Route 424, we were ambushed. Probably by Cornerian lapdogs. That's always how it goes. They shot everyone.  
Everyone  
was dead  
and i was all alone  
and i knew i had to be silent or they would kill me too  
and i hid underneath the seat while they riddled the whole fucking car with bullets  
so many hours  
i dont even know how long i was there  
afraid to even sniff  
blood was everywhere  
it was evvfffvvvverywhere  
and i never knew why  
why  
oh god why  
someone tell me  
WHY  
*** End of file ***  
*** 03 ***  
You're still here. What else do you want to know? Do you dare ask why I shot Commander S. L. Connors? Do you understand it, Bill? Can you comprehend the hate, the raw, unrefined, murderous anger, the sorrow, the pain, the burning pain that was never soothed, that flows through my veins as I punch in these words? Can you?  
There are a lot of stories going around. But you know the truth. I hear some say I ate him. That's bullshit, that's disgusting. Yet they want my head.  
And I want theirs.  
I want their head so damn badly. HIS head. THAT MAN-  
And I am going to get it, sooner or later.  
Uncle Dan found me. Mentally broken, all alone. I don't know what he did to the bodies of my parents and my brother. He said he gave them a honorable burial. I stayed at his home for several weeks after that. Uncle Dan took care of me. I vaguely remember him making attempts at cheering me up. Now that I look back at it, I realize I must have been shattered, and he knew that. I wish I could have made him happier.  
Cornerian lapdogs came by one day. I hid somewhere where I could see the front door, but they couldn't see me. They asked him if they knew my parents, showing a picture and whatever other crap. And he said no, knowing I was the one they were looking for. They wanted to kill me too. He knew that, and I knew it. The Cornerian lapdogs apparently knew he was lying, and knew he was actually related to me. And then they shot him IN THE FUCKING FACE  
*** End of file ***  
*** 04 ***  
I spent the next few years in Corneria City, under a different name. Not really just a few years, actually. A little over ten. I found an apartment outside of the Centre that was uninhabited and lived there. I got by from stealing in the neighborhood. Can you imagine that? A nine-year-old breaking into houses and stealing food? I was terrible at covering up, though, and at some point people figured out that someone was living illegally in that apartment. They sent Cornerian lapdogs. And those things want me dead.

This repeated itself for about three times, if I remember correctly. My last 'home' was on the outskirts of Corneria City, in some slums. I was sixteen years at the time and had a couple of fistfights with morons looking for something to do. Surprisingly I won all of them. The smaller, the harder to hit, I guess. In the mean time I grew a fondness for computers. I saw them evolve over the course of a few years. At the age of nineteen, I found the public communications address of Sargasso Space Station. I thought I could try. Maybe something nice would come out. So I tried intercepting and deciphering messages to and from that criminal network. I succeeded, and grew bolder. At some point I started modifying the actual contents of the data packets, spoofing headers, reading and injecting information and that kind of stuff. It worked, but I made such a terrible mistake. In retrospect it might have not been a bad thing at all.

I did not know they had been watching me as well. They were aware of my presence on the network, and apparently my messing with their stuff set them off. They burst through the front door of the one-room apartment at night, the sound waking me up. Star Wolf was there, three plasma rifles aimed at my head. They could have killed me, but they didn't. Probably didn't expect a 19 year old lupine to be the source of their problems.

Wolf (affectionately called Furball in my log files) asked me some questions. About my past. He offered me to use my technical skills on Sargasso. Though we all knew it wasn't really an offer. More like, say-no-and-we'll-have-to-shoot-you. So I agreed. Free food, after all. Nothing to lose anyway.

And here I am. Writing these logs on the public communications terminal on Sargasso. The terminal I have once broken into. But that security hole has been patched now. By me.  
I know Orange gave you the address of this terminal. That is obvious enough. Orange is the only one not directly related to Sargasso who has been here not just once but several times. He knows how the network operates. Furball told him, I think. And I also know that Slippy told you how to circumvent my patch on the authentication system. Don't look stupefied like that, Bill. No one else in Lylat could have told you how to. They're all just too dumb to understand. So pass this on to Pepper or something. I know you will. I know I will be executed, too. I failed at the one thing I wanted to do. Bittersweet revenge and all that cliché bullcrap. It'll be just a few more minutes unti  
SYSTEM ERROR: Unexpected end of file.  
*** End of file ***  
[20:03] End of all files.  
] compose mail  
] attach all *.text  
] subject "Log files"  
] text "I extracted these files from his terminal using the information Fox provided. He even addressed me directly. I dunno about this, General, but there's much more to this guy than he is letting on or is visible on the exterior. I know that he is in custody and you ordered for him to be executed tomorrow. I request that you keep him alive. Please read the attached files. You'll understand why I ask this of you. - Com. Bill Gray"  
] recipient gen-pepper  
] send  
[20:05] Message sent to "General C. Pepper" with 4 file(s) as attachment(s).  
] logoff  
[20:05] Notifying authentication server...  
[20:05] Session terminated.  
] _


End file.
